Background

I am from Ladakh (also called Little Tibet), a province in northern India. Although it is politically part of India, Ladakh is culturally and linguistically Tibetan. I did my undergraduate in Anthropology here at the University of Arizona (UA) and currently I am working for the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology (BARA) in the Department of Anthropology as a research specialist. Before moving to the U.S. in 2002, I worked as a project co-coordinator for an international non-profit organization call International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC), and an indigenous non-profit farmer's organization call the Women's Alliance of Ladakh. My work involved coordinating projects that support the local economy, environment and alternative development projects in Ladakh, and also raising awareness about the negative impacts of economic globalization on cultural and biological diversity in Ladakh and around the world.

I have also given talks and attended conferences in United States, India, Sweden, Holland, United Kingdom, France and Thailand. Besides working for non-profits I have also completed an undergraduate degree in liberal arts (BA)from Punjab University in Chandigarh, a city in northern India and a second BA (Anthropology) at the University of Arizona. My current interests are research and applied anthropology, with a focus on socio-economic problems in developing countries, especially South Asia, and in the future I intend to work for poverty reduction in both the developing and the developed countries.

Research Interests

Applied anthropology, international development studies, ethnography of international development, anthropology of development, participatory research methods, participatory GIS, food security and poverty reduction.

Research Area

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